Short periods of daily mindfulness improve symptoms of depression and anxiety, a new study finds.
Slowing down brain aging, reducing pain or stress, libido… mindfulness meditation is an age-old practice, particularly in vogue due to the many benefits attributed to it. A new study from the Universities of Bath and Southampton adds that this practice can also help combat depression.
Mindfulness Fights Depression and Anxiety
For this study published in the journal British Journal of Health Psychologyresearchers followed 1,247 adults from 91 countries. Half of them had to do mindfulness sessions of a few minutes via an app for a month. These included relaxation exercises, body scans and breathing exercises.
The other participants, integrated into the control group, had to listen to audio extracts from Alice in Wonderland.
At the end of the experiment, all volunteers answered surveys about their mental health. Analysis of the responses showed that people who practiced mindfulness meditation saw their symptoms of depression decrease by 19.2% and anxiety by 12.6%. Their well-being improved by 6.9%.
Other findings: their attitude towards health had become 7.1% more positive and their intention to take care of their health was 6.5% higher compared to the control group.
“The positive effects of mindfulness were largely maintained after 30 days. At follow-up survey one month later (day 61), the mindfulness group showed lasting improvements in their well-being, depression, attitudes, and even reported better sleep quality.”add the authors in their press release.
Mindfulness: how to practice this meditation?
Mindfulness meditation consists of voluntarily bringing one’s attention back to the present moment, to what is happening within oneself at that moment. “It can be bodily sensations, breathing, what we hear or what we see… By doing this, we expand our state of consciousness. Rather than being absorbed by automatic thoughts, we observe thoughts externally, in real time.”explained psychiatrist Marine Colombel during a previous interview given to Pourquoi Docteur.
This method of meditation can be practiced alone. But for the expert, it is preferable to be guided by a practitioner or an application when starting out. The author of several books including Anti-burn-out meditation (2018, ed. Marabout), also detailed how a mindfulness session takes place: “The principle is to inhale and exhale through the nose, with the mouth closed and the tongue pressed against the palate, and above all, not to impose a breathing rhythm: you have to let your breathing flow naturally, with the idea of observing the breath. Breathing is not the only way to bring your attention back to the present moment: you can do what is called a body scan, which consists of observing the sensations of your body, taking care to linger on each area, from the feet to the head.”
